So kinda the joke here is how laughably terrible Lion man/Returner chief/street light Banon is when you are forced to babysit him on the Lete River. His mp independent healing skill is of course immediately offset by his low starting level (when he showed up in my party he was all of level 7) and the fact that if he is so much as K.O.'d it's an insta-game-over.

Always weird when someone else's experience with a game (or section of it) is so completely unfamiliar to me. Literally never thought/felt/experienced the above, ever, through like half a dozen or more playthroughs of VI.

Logged

"You know, you're pretty cool too, Arvis. You like good music, good games, and good tennis." - Divingfalcons

So kinda the joke here is how laughably terrible Lion man/Returner chief/street light Banon is when you are forced to babysit him on the Lete River. His mp independent healing skill is of course immediately offset by his low starting level (when he showed up in my party he was all of level 7) and the fact that if he is so much as K.O.'d it's an insta-game-over.

Always weird when someone else's experience with a game (or section of it) is so completely unfamiliar to me. Literally never thought/felt/experienced the above, ever, through like half a dozen or more playthroughs of VI.

I ran into some bull with him because IIRC one of the enemies can "kill him" for zombie or stone status.I quit Persona 4 in Kanji's dungeon where 3 times in a row some OHKO enemy managed to screw over my party and I just gave up (but really wanna try playing it again to show it who's queen!!! ....or something).

So kinda the joke here is how laughably terrible Lion man/Returner chief/street light Banon is when you are forced to babysit him on the Lete River. His mp independent healing skill is of course immediately offset by his low starting level (when he showed up in my party he was all of level 7) and the fact that if he is so much as K.O.'d it's an insta-game-over.

Always weird when someone else's experience with a game (or section of it) is so completely unfamiliar to me. Literally never thought/felt/experienced the above, ever, through like half a dozen or more playthroughs of VI.

I ran into some bull with him because IIRC one of the enemies can "kill him" for zombie or stone status.I quit Persona 4 in Kanji's dungeon where 3 times in a row some OHKO enemy managed to screw over my party and I just gave up (but really wanna try playing it again to show it who's queen!!! ....or something).

You know what's funny about this it was prob the bronze/silver DICE enemy that casts last resort if you lower it's HP to much without killing it.

There is an easy way to get past Tunnel armor using the Thunder Rod you get in the cave as an item. Its what used in most low level runs but I think that goes against the rules you put on yourself.

LOL, thanks for the shout out, Jawsh. Surprisingly, I've only ever had people recognize me from VI a few times, and almost always after they start playing VI again.

Even as a kid, I always felt like Arvis had more to him than we ever got to see in VI. Not only that, but his fate is never revealed. So he's been my online alter ego since I was like 13 years old. So... about 20 years now.

Sorry I'm only just now poking my head into this thread.

EDIT, RE; TinctureObviously, Tinctures have some other properties that people buy them for. Obviously.But... I don't know what they're for. Maybe they're the FFVI World's version of coffee."I'm useless until I've had my Tincture, ha ha!"

I thought you were the guy who invited Sigurd & crew to his fabulous barbecue?

As for Tinctures, The Empire has always had fauna that had low levels of magic to them, so there's one possible source of the stuff. Another is that Tinctures are kinda really crappy restoratives anyways so perhaps nobody even really knew what they were for and just liked the flavor of the not-Pepsi to Potions' not-Coke.

- A mysterious young woman controlled by the Empire, and born with the gift of Magic... .... So that's great and all, but if a character isn't important enough to need to finish the game is she really the main character???? Was the choice to make the first character introduced basically optional by the end a brilliant/bold decision or just confusing?

I like that it gives other characters a chance to shine, but it definitely hurts her development for a kinda lame orphanage subplot. I'm...honestly kinda torn on Terra and Celes (Celestina!) as important RPG heroines, they find their courage in the 11th hour after a lot of self-doubt. They were good at the time, they sort of fit the 'lovely and fair' persona a lot of heroines had back then just with the added angle of being bumped up to lead players, but how exciting they were is a bit of a mixed back. Terra is a plot-device though, one that can go "lost" for a little bit and it definitely harms her character. I view her more as a positive force and symbol for girls in leading roles but not at all my favorite example.

At the time, she was a definite breath of fresh air, given just how few females were even playable in games at the time. Terra's predecessors were Alis(a) of Phantasy Star fame (who's still an incredibly rare example of a series where the first main character was female and was not heavily sexualized in the process), Samus Aran (who's sole defining trait was that she was A Gurl) and the bulk of the cast of the Valis series (back in the day when Bikini Armor was still kinda in vogue). Everybody else was either running definitely Male characters, animorphic mascot wannabes, CYOGender (with heavy assumption that you're male or going to play male) or were hella obscure titles (anybody remember Alisa Dragoon?), licensed titles (like The Little Mermaid), titles meant only as 4Gurls shovelware (go ahead, name me a Barbie title, make my day) or something something PCs something (I'm looking at you Sierra and your not-Nancy Drew aka Laura Bow).

Unfortunately, this game didn't age particularly well either as the undertones kinda undercut a lot of Terra's (and Celes') importance to the plot, especially if you follow the scars left by the nip/tucking of their plotlines, you'd get the sense that Locke was supposed to be the true main character of the game (or at least the first half, ala FFVII's Cloud). Its also evident in a number of other games that Sakaguchi worked on (The Last Story being a prominent example, FFs IX & X as well).

- On to The Returners' hideout and babysitting low level Bannon on the Lete River; AKA the first truly frustrating part of this playthrough.

yeah I hate Bannon. Between his ridiculous hair, his traffic-light-inspired gear, his low-level escort mission, and the fact he's an NPC even more absent than Terra later on (I guess he fucking dies in the WoR??) is just a perfect storm for a shit character.

Bearnon, Arvis and the rest of the Returners we're all kinda hanging around Vector when the shit went down, so I assumed that they all fell off a cliff between the WoB and the WoR (and quite possibly literally too given that cutscene at the end of WoB).

Also, why are you underleveled? You aren't going to gain anything by saving your levels for Espers when you aren't going to be using them in the first place.

Because if I just power leveled my way through the game it would mitigate the challenge of figuring out the perfect strategy (with the perfect equipment/relics) to beat some of the harder bosses without espers or magic.

Vaguely thinking about it I think the thing that I liked best about FF6 were all those like mini-game shenanigans. The opera house, the banquet, even sort of the midterm duel with Kefka or earlier with just the mogs protecting Terra.

Then the split between the paths with different options to meet up at Narshe.

I don't know what prompted Square to get so experimental with everything, out of all the FFs it probably has the fewest (grind through this dungeon or line of enemies) moments.

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"I don't live by labels, I can be anything I want, I'd rather die a pauper than live on as someone else's fantasy!" - My best attempt at quoting the protagonist of Vandal Hearts 2.

Because if I just power leveled my way through the game it would mitigate the challenge of figuring out the perfect strategy (with the perfect equipment/relics) to beat some of the harder bosses without espers or magic.

Keep multiple save slots FOR SURE. Running under-leveled, SOMEONE here just may have completely screwed himself one playthrough long ago whilst escaping Vector...

- So Shadow bailed on the party before I even got on the train. He left when I was in the forest on the way to the train, but I was wondering if anyone had heard of him leaving before they even made it to the forest?

- I always have a strange dilemma when it comes to recruiting ??????? ghosts on the phantom train because while they make getting to the front a lot easier, they also force you to split your Xp among more party members (which means that Sabin and Cyan ultimately level up slower). I figured it was best to just avoid them this time.

- Phantom Train is a walk in the park (even with only 2 party members) if you just spam it with Blitz' and the level one SwordTech. I had to use a few potions too I guess.

- After jumping off a cliff? and fighting some angry fish comes the part where you meet Gau (ugh) and jump off ANOTHER cliff. If it wasn't already obvious I can't really stand Gau as a character. Getting all of his rages always seems like much more of a hassle than he's worth. Unfortunately, since this is a natural magic/no esper run, I suppose I'll have to learn to use him.

- Final thought before I reunite with everyone in Narshe: I don't seem to ever remember being at a loss over where to go next in this game when I played it as a kid, but now I keep running into places where it feels like if I didn't already know where to go next to move the story forward, I'd just have to explore and hope for the best. Was confusion and forced exploration common among other people's experience with FFVI?

- So Shadow bailed on the party before I even got on the train. He left when I was in the forest on the way to the train, but I was wondering if anyone had heard of him leaving before they even made it to the forest?

- I always have a strange dilemma when it comes to recruiting ??????? ghosts on the phantom train because while they make getting to the front a lot easier, they also force you to split your Xp among more party members (which means that Sabin and Cyan ultimately level up slower). I figured it was best to just avoid them this time.

- Phantom Train is a walk in the park (even with only 2 party members) if you just spam it with Blitz' and the level one SwordTech. I had to use a few potions too I guess.

- After jumping off a cliff? and fighting some angry fish comes the part where you meet Gau (ugh) and jump off ANOTHER cliff. If it wasn't already obvious I can't really stand Gau as a character. Getting all of his rages always seems like much more of a hassle than he's worth. Unfortunately, since this is a natural magic/no esper run, I suppose I'll have to learn to use him.

- Final thought before I reunite with everyone in Narshe: I don't seem to ever remember being at a loss over where to go next in this game when I played it as a kid, but now I keep running into places where it feels like if I didn't already know where to go next to move the story forward, I'd just have to explore and hope for the best. Was confusion and forced exploration common among other people's experience with FFVI?

Shadow leaves as soon as you earn a determined amount of GP with him in the party. To keep him around as long as possible before he becomes perma-selectable means minimizing the coin you earn (no easy workaround really).

I'm reaching back here, but I also vaguely recall a few instances early game that lack obvious direction as to where to go or at the very least, how to get there. Considering I played this enough to literally draw dungeon maps purely from recollection at this point, I can't confirm that.